Hard Feelings, Daniel Smith. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781982103903) 2026.
Summary: We are inclined to suppress negative emotions but if we listen to what they are saying about ourselves, we gain wisdom.
Daniel Smith received two unusual gifts for his fortieth birthday. One was a 1621 book, The Anatomy of Melancholy. The other was a coffee table book of the strange, lurid art of Hieronymus Bosch. He shelved the books away but couldn’t forget them. He’d wrestled with what one might call “negative emotions” all his life, and most dramatically after his divorce several years earlier, that sent him in a tailspin. But he couldn’t shelve the negative emotions these represented. Neither could he wallow in them. As a therapist, he was coming to understand that the place to begin was to be curious about them and what they were pointing to, perhaps in his own life.
Before he gets into specific emotions he first explores the morality of emotions and theories about emotions. All to often, emotions were divided into good and bad, with the bad being immoral. Then he explores theories of emotions, considering both Basic Emotion Theory and the Theory of Constructed Emotion. The former proposes that we are wired to respond in certain ways to different experiences, the latter, that how we respond is shaped by our interpretation of experience. Smith favors the latter and believes we need to “understand the complex structures and patterns” that underlie our emotions.
In the remainder of the book, in two parts, he considers six emotions we might consider negative. Part Two considers annoyance, shame, and envy. Then Part Three looks at boredom, regret and despair. Smith combines autobiographical material with research to tease out what each of these emotions. Annoyance points to boundaries transgressed that could lead to anger. Smith realized the choice he faces to internalize the annoying–to become annoyed–and that he may choose not to. He discovers that shame feeds on hiding and is lessened with self-exposure. Then there is envy, which may point to a neglected desire, fueled by comparisons with others. Interestingly, he spends a lot of time discussing his wife’s struggle to not have others envy her!
One of the strengths of the book is Smith’s candor. For example he honestly describes his own boredom in parenting a young child. Yet he sees boredom as the underside of a life “pregnant with meaning.” Then, he explores the addictive element of regret that poisons our steps into the future. Finally, despair is the curving inward in which one luxuriates in one’s helplessness rather than accept help, to look beyond oneself. In the author’s case, this meant daily studying a linden in a nearby park.
Perhaps the greatest wisdom here is to acknowledge and listen to all our emotions for what they are trying to show us. Smith’s self-deprecating autobiography models that posture. However, at points, this felt meandering. I didn’t always feel that his discussions “landed.” But perhaps that is also the point. He and all of us are in a process of making sense out of our lives, one that doesn’t progress in neat, linear fashion. He is not one of those who has arrived. Rather, he is still on the way, a way he has illuminated with humor, honesty, and substance.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program.
Love in a Time of Climate Change (Revised edition), Sharon Delgado. Fortress Press (ISBN: 9798889837206) 2026, first edition 2017.
Summary: Uses the Wesleyan Quadrilateral to discern a faithful Christian response to the realities of climate change.
Sharon Delgado is a United Methodist pastor who seeks to help those with whom she ministers to connect their personal faith with their advocacy, including advocacy around concerns of climate change and climate justice. Delgado provides an overview of the facts about climate change and its impacts. But what is unique about this book is how she draws on John Wesley’s use of scripture, tradition, reason, and experience as tools for discerning and acting upon Christian truth. These four elements are sometimes known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. What is delightful is to see how she follows Wesley in walking readers through this process. She focuses on two ideas, creation and justice, and then ties these together with the love of God and neighbor.
In Part I of the book, she offers an overview of information about climate change. Then she turns to Wesley use of the Quadrilateral and explains each aspect.
Part II is on the theme of “Honoring Creation.” First, in looking at scripture, she looks at God’s love for the groaning creation as well as our role in it. Then, under tradition, she summarizes Wesley’s teaching and that of contemporary Wesleyan theologians. She focuses on his theology of grace and how people nurtured in grace join God in nurturing his creation. But science and scripture have sometimes been seen in conflict about creation. Under reason, she focuses on the use of reason to draw from both in common sense action. Finally, under experience, she discusses a sacramental approach to the world that practices God’s presence as we care for creation.
Part III turns to the theme of “Establishing Justice.” Much of the focus on scripture is an extended reflection on the Jericho road. She explores what it means to move beyond individual acts of compassion (i.e. “the Good Samaritan”) to recognizing systemic injustices and the need for transformation. Then, on tradition, she begins with Wesley’s ideas on social holiness which led him to address the slave trade and relates it to contemporary theologies of liberation. Under reason, she challenges climate denialism and “cap and trade” strategies as traditional market strategies and argues for alternatives to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Finally, under experience, she profiles those working on the front lines where climate change is deeply impacting lives, such as extraction zones, those affected by extreme weather, and on the lands of indigenous peoples.
The final chapter pulls thinking about creation and justice together around love of God and neighbor. She reminds people of the spiritual nature of the work and urges people to work in community. This community extends to others around the world working to protect creation.
I wrestle with the hopefulness that reason and right action will save the day. Apart from a radical transformation, I think we are determined to go down the path of destruction. Honestly, I don’t think we will act apart from catastrophic consequences, and maybe not even then, in a united fashion. That does not mean that Christians don’t pursue the care of creation and justice. We choose to pursue mercy and justice no matter the outcome. And perhaps in that context, the template of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral offers a good process to think Christianly about how we ought live faithfully. Delgado provides supplemental resources for study and action groups to use. I welcome this Wesleyan perspective on creation care.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
Summary: Lessons for the weary from the desert fathers and mothers on practices that cultivate resilience and renewal.
One of the hard things I’ve seen in my Christian journey are others with whom I travelled give up, often in mid-life. While some have been because of “church hurt,” others are just tired. The demands of life combined with their own waning energies are part of it. Another part is that the faith of their twenties isn’t working anymore. The God who once seemed so real is distant. Some, out of habit, keep showing up, perhaps with a faint glimmer of hope that something will break through. Others just walk away. Sunday brunch is so much more inviting.
To look at her from the outside, Tish Harrison Warren was the model of the vibrant Christian. A gifted writer, she had reached the rarefied air of writing a weekly op-ed for The New York Times after a string of well-received books and articles. She was also an Anglican priest, who had returned to her home town of Austin, and the mom of three children. But her life mirrored that of many in mid-life: in the “sandwich,” harried, distracted. In reality, she felt like she was in a desert–weary and parched.
In this book, she describes turning to a weird bunch of saints from 1700 years ago, the desert fathers and mothers, the progenitors of monasticism. Yes, they did some strange things lie sit on pillars. But they also understood that the desert is part of the spiritual journey. They named the condition and the tendencies to “flame out” or “numb out.” Instead, they wrestled what it meant to go on with God through the desert times.
After this introduction, Warren, in a series of pithily titled chapters reflects upon and passes along their wisdom. “Stay in Your Cell” focuses on the temptation of acedia, to flee to ease or new distractions, and the wisdom of stability, of staying true to one’s people and one’s spiritual practices. We meet John of the Cross, who learns to set aside the longing for feeling or insight to simply be with God in his cell, even when there is no sense of his presence. “Pledge Your Body to the Walls” draws on Benedicts insights about gyrovagues who moved from one monastery to another. Warren explores all the ways we are gyrovagues from relentless moves to church switches and the challenge of letting our roots sink deep in a place.
“Wait in the Womb” explores how stability that waits and perseveres becomes a place where God develops and transforms us. She quotes C.S. Lewis’s counsel to ” ‘continue seeking with cheerful seriousness,’ knowing that unless God ‘wanted you, you would not be wanting Him.’ ” Then, “Relax the Bow” draws on a story of Antony with a hunter, asking him to draw a bow more and more until the hunter protests that it will snap. So it is, Antony says with God’s work. Warren writes about learning the gift of days of delight and sabbath and the grace of confession as ways to relax the bow. Likewise, “Let the Silt Settle” invites us to silence and solitude.
Throughout the book, Warren is both hopeful and yet honest. There are no quick fixes or shortcuts out of the desert. This is a book about going through desert lands, about how to keep going, cultivating resilience. “Brace the Wall” addresses the realities of doubt and disorientation in our desert journeys. We have questions and don’t see clearly the way forward. And sometimes we doubt that God can be trusted. She writes of working through the Psalms and how “yelling at God about our anger, our doubt, and our complaints is perhaps one of the most faithful moves we can make.”
Finally, “All Smoke, All Flame” speaks to “the culmination of Christian resilience.” The title comes from the counsel of Abba Joseph to Abba Lot, who recites his practices and asks “what else can I do?” Abba Joseph “stretched his hands toward heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, ‘If you will, you can become all flame.” We cannot force fire by our efforts, which are just smoke. But by grace through our stumbling practices of faithfulness, we slowly progress. And one day God will set us ablaze in glory.
There is a lot of wisdom as well as earthy humor in Warren’s rich prose. The gist of it all is to not give up, flaming out or numbing out. It is not to chase after spiritual quick fixes. It is to stay put and keep going deeper in the inexhaustible world of prayer and scripture, of sacrament and community. I’m past those perilous middle years. But Warren speaks to my senior years as well. It’s so easy to settle in. I need her call to persevere all the more. And, I’m compelled by the vision to become all flame. By grace, may it be so!
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
I see many stories about the eclipse of reading. I’m not sure what to believe about all that. What I am sure of is that I’m going to keep reading.
First of all I’m still able. Neither the mind nor the eyes have failed. So let’s read while we can.
Also, you could argue that it is a habit. And that would be right. Reading has enriched my life for over 65 years. Why stop?
“Because I think I am making progress.” That’s what famed cellist Pablo Casals said in his eighties when asked why he still practiced for hours a day. I think that is true for me as well. I think I’m a better reader than five years ago. I carry more from what I’ve read before into what I read now.
I’m still curious. I still long to understand more of God, the world around me, human history, and even baseball. Actually, it’s humbling, because in all of these things, the more I read, the more I grasp how little I understand.
I also read to resist everything from AI to the bombardments of our visual and social media that would turn my mind to mush. Longform writing challenges me to focus, to see the connections of one idea to the next, one event to the next. None of us sees the totality of the big picture. But I don’t want to settle for memes, slogans, and nostrums.
Finally, did I mention what a pleasure this all is? Not the quick, evanescent pleasure of a snack but the slow, savoring pleasure of a multiple course dinner at a top end restaurant, where each bite is savored.
We celebrated our 48th anniversary this week. Count me in as a believer in marriage. But marriage isn’t easy, nor is it the institution it once was. Stephanie Coontz has a new book title For Better and Worse, reviewed by Honor Jones in “How to Save Marriage.” The article portrays how our cultural landscape has changed and why.
The Man Who Read Everything is a literary biography of Harold Bloom through his correspondence. Barry Schwabsky introduces us to Bloom and the book in “The Critic’s Loves.”
Reaction continues to come in to Magnifica humanitas, Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI. In “Should the Lion Lie Down With the Electric Lamb?” Anton Barba Kay argues the encyclical doesn’t recognize the greatest threat of AI. He writes:
“The letdown is not that Magnifica humanitas is too moderate or that we are called on to ‘embrace’ technology ‘with gratitude and realism,’ it is that the Church and the pope have not yet discovered what technology is or how it recomposes us—have not realized what it would truly mean to articulate the disagreement they have with Big Tech.”
Joe Hill, the son of Stephen King and an accomplished writer as well, was born June 4, 1972. He observed:
“You think you know someone. But mostly you just know what you want to know.“
Miscellaneous Musings
Did you ever feel you were reading a book the author wasn’t ready to write? That was my feeling about a book I just finished. It had some great insights, but it just didn’t feel “ripe” to me.
I agreed to review a book from an e-galley in .pdf format. It’s from a very small publisher and I understand their financial constraints. But the experience reminded me how I prefer physical books in reviewing. They allow me to easily flip back and forth. This did not even have any hyperlinks, so it meant lots of scrolling of a 400 page book.
Today the Allies landed on the Normandy beaches 82 years ago. I’ve read several histories of that day as well as watched Saving Private Ryan. One can’t but celebrate the heroism of those who fought and those who died. It also sobers me to remember that they were resisting in Nazism a tyrannous, expansionist, nationalist, and white supremacist regime.
Next Week’s Reviews
Monday: Tish Harrison Warren, What Grows in Weary Lands
Tuesday: Sharon Delgado, Love in a Time of Climate Change
Wednesday: Daniel Smith, Hard Feelings
Thursday: Mikel Del Rosario, Did Jesus Really Say He Was God?
Friday, Howard Thurman, Nothing Can Separate Us
So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for May 31 – June 6.
Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.
Mrs. McGinty’s Dead (Hercule Poirot, 29), Agatha Christie. William Morrow Paperbacks (ISBN: 9780063376915) 2025, first published in 1952..
Summary: Superintendent Spence doesn’t think the man he helped convict in Mrs. McGinty’s murder is guilty and asks Poirot’s help.
“Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.” In this case, real life follows the nursery rhyme. But everyone thinks they know who killed her. Specifically, all the evidence was against James Bentley, her out-of-work, depressive lodger who was behind on his rent. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. But Superintendent Spence, who collected the evidence that helped convict him is still not sure. Bentley doesn’t fit the profile of other murderers observed by the experienced Spence. So he asks his friend Poirot to investigate to see if any reason can be found to stay the man’s execution.
Poirot goes to Broadhinny, the village where Mrs. McGinty had lived. His plan is to put it about that new evidence suggests someone else murdered Mrs. McGinty, to see if the murderer will show his or her hand. He stays with the Summerhayes. The family goes way back but the current occupants have no idea how to run a guest house. This provides an element of humor as Poirot has to put up with inedible food and a chaotic and messy house. However that mess will later provide key clues–the missing murder weapon and a photo that had not been in a drawer when Poirot previously tidied it.
As Poirot goes through Mrs. McGinty’s effects, he discovers a newspaper with part of a page clipped out from three days before the murder. The story was about four women suspected of but never convicted of murder, accompanied by pictures of them. Furthermore, Mrs. McGinty had purchased ink to write a letter. Poirot concludes she believed one of the women, under a different name, lived in Broadhinny! She’s seen one of the photographs.
It turns out that Mrs. McGinty did domestic work for a number of the families. Guy and Eve Carpenter are wealthy and he is running to become a Member of Parliament. Eve’s background, however, is one she wants to keep quiet. The Weatherbys have manipulated their step-daughter Deidre, who is independently wealthy to stay with them. Robin Upward, a budding playwright seems to fawn over his adoptive mother Laura. Dr. Rendell’s wife seems quite nervous. All employed Mrs. McGinty, and all seem to have something to hide.
Twice, during his investigations, Poirot meets Bentley, who does nothing to help him. He believes he has no friends. Poirot believes otherwise. But it becomes clear someone else connected to the newspaper story is the real party of interest when another murder occurs. Who that is emerges in a climactic scene with the leading villagers.
The other humorous element in all of this is Ariadne Oliver, who happens on the scene because she is working with Robin Upward, the playwright. As always, she thinks she will “help” Poirot with her mystery-writer skills. And she does help sell the reason for Poirot’s visit. But it is Poirot alone who exposes the real murderer.
This one had just the right mix of humor and suspense and red herrings. Most rankings of Christie’s novels don’t rank this one at the top. While not among the very best, I would put it in the category of “very good” with a great setup, setting, and plot twists.
Nicaea for Today, Coleman M. Ford and Shawn J. Wilhite. B & H Academic (ISBN: 9781430091547) 2025.
Summary: The history, meaning, and contemporary significance of the Nicene Creed and how it may be used in churches today.
Why is a theological statement, a creed formulated 1700 years ago still important for the life of the church? That is the question Coleman M. Ford and Shawn J. Wilhite address in Nicaea for Today. The year 2025 marked the 1700th anniversary of the creed that emerged from an ecumenical council of bishops called by Constantine, meeting in the town of Nicaea, in Asia Minor. The authors argue that the Nicene Creed and its expansion, the Nicene-Constantinople Creed in 381 are not simply for those with an interest in early church history but of continuing value for the church, articulating shared essential beliefs grounded in the scriptures. At the same time, these beliefs serve as a guide for how we read the scriptures, particularly in understanding the person and work of Christ.
First, the authors unpack this historical context leading to Nicaea. They elaborate the challenge posed by Arius as a popular teacher in the church who asserted of the Son that “There was a time when he was not.” In other words, he was asserting that the Son was not co-eternal with God the Father and did not share the Father’s divine nature. Meanwhile, a huge transformation was taking place in the Roman empire with the ascent of Constantine to power and the new status he bestowed on the church. As the controversy with Arius grew, Arius and his followers appealed to Constantine, who called for the ecumenical council to meet.
In the next two chapters (3 and 4), the authors show how Nicaea addressed both the divinity and full humanity of Jesus. Pertaining to divinity, the Son was eternally begotten of the Father, not created, and he was consubstantial with the Father, of one substance. In other words, the Son is eternally generated by the father, a description not of beginning but relationship. As the Son, he was God’s agent in creation. That is, through him, all things were created.
Then the creed discusses how the divine Son became human, the Incarnate Son, adding a human nature to his divine nature in one hypostatic union (although this was not fully clarified until 451 at Chalcedon). Crucified, he bodily arose and ascended, from which he will return in judgment and victory. The authors include the seven two-fold patterns associated with Christ from Cyril’s Catechetical Lectures: two advents, two generations, to descents, two cloth coverings, two different postures, two announcements, and two judgments.
Chapters 5 and 6 then focus on salvation and sanctification in the creed. Only the Incarnate Son could save. He was both fully human standing in our place. And since only God could save, his work was fully effective to save. And because he arose, Jesus is our trophy over death. By participating in the life of the risen Christ, we are transformed increasingly into the likeness of Christ. The final transformation will be our resurrection.
Finally, chapters 7 and 8 address how we might use the creeds in our churches today. They address their use in baptism, eucharist, and the catechism of new believers. They also touch on use in personal devotion, corporate worship, and preaching. Lastly, they discuss reading the Bible Nicenely. That is, they serve as a faithful guide for exegesis. The authors elaborate this further in what they call partitive exegesis, using Philippians 2 as an example.
I appreciated the history and clear explanations of the issues at stake theologically for the Councils. In addition, each chapter opens with a pithy summary of the chapter’s relevance, “Thinking Nicenely Today.” Each chapter concludes the theological discussion with a “Biblical Connections” section and “Conclusion” that served as a brief chapter summary. The authors also provide reading lists of primary and secondary source material.
The authors succeed in their aim to show the relevance for the Nicene and Nicene-Constantinople Creeds for the church today. They offer clear explications for the value of the creeds for articulating core Christian beliefs. They show how the creeds can guide our reading of scripture. And they show how to fruitfully implement the creeds in our practice. This is a valuable resource for seminarians, pastors, liturgists, and adult educators.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
Summary: An accountant creates a fantasy baseball league that takes over his life.
Before modern fantasy baseball leagues. Before the invention of Sabremetrics to analyze every possible baseball statistic. In 1968, Robert Coover introduced us to J. Henry Waugh, sole proprietor of the Universal Baseball League. It is a league created in Waugh’s apartment. But no one else knows about it. He named the eight teams after early pro teams. He filled the rosters with players who he named, who took on lives of their own. Games were played by the role of three dice. Waugh had created an elaborate system for each possible dice combination.
As the book opens, the league is in its fifty-sixth (LVI) season of 84 games. But something is wrong, both with the league and with Henry. The league just doesn’t seem to have the same excitement. Yet it is taking over more and more of Henry’s life. His day job is as an accountant with a big accounting firm. Then he ran the league in the evening and weekends. His only social life is trips to the local dive bar, his friend Lou from work, and Hetty, his neighbor and “friend with benefits.” A local grocer delivers his food.
But it gets worse. Not only does he play the games, and keep records of all the statistics, promote rookies, and retire veterans. He also has allowed the players to occupy his mind with their lives–their off the field escapades and tragedies. There are long passages of imagined bar scenes with bawdy songs (including one with a rape). And as the league occupies more of his head space, his work suffers and his job is at risk. Sometimes, fantasy dialogue leaks out in real life conversation.
By Season LVI, star players have sons in the game. For example, Damon Rutherford is a rookie pitcher who looks like he will follow in the steps of his Hall of Fame Father Brock Rutherford. The book opens with him in the middle of pitching a perfect game. And Henry realizes that Damon hold the hope of a revitalized league. And then, in the next game it all changes with one roll of the dice that come up 1-1-1. That unlikely combination means a batter hit by a pitch that kills him. And who is at the plate when this unlucky role comes up? Damon Rutherford.
With that, it all spirals downward, for Henry and for the League. He even lets Lou help him with a game, letting him in on his secret obsession. It doesn’t go well. As his job hangs by a thread, he considers winding it all up and getting his life in order. But will he?
Robert Coover invents a character with an unusual fantasy obsession that holds up a mirror to our obsessions and addictions. With the advent of online sports betting, we hear more and more stories of those who have wrecked their lives and their families’ finances with their obsession. But Coover uncovers a more profound truth. What does Henry have to live for that is better than his personal fantasy league?
This is an adult book with adult language and sexual material, some of which may be triggering. But it also explores the adult obsessions and addictions with which we fill our lives when nothing greater and better does. It’s both fascinating and painful. But the life you save may be your own.
Summary: A collection of essays reflecting on Christian scholarship 30 years after Marsden and Noll’s books.
The two books came out during the first years after I transitioned to campus ministry with graduate students and faculty members. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark A. Noll and The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship by George M. Marsden provided a kind of raison d’etre for my work. The earliest American universities had been established by Christians and many had capstone courses focused both on the relationship of Christian faith to every discipline and evidences for the Christian faith. However, in the 1990’s Christianity had been either marginalized to barely surviving religion departments or was viewed as an enemy of both intellectual life and human freedom. These two authors inspired many of us to devote our efforts to raising up a new generation of scholars who brought to bear the mind of Christ to their academic research and practice.
In 2024, a group of Christians in Communications Studies conceived of the idea of hosting an “unconference” ahead of their discipline’s annual academic conference. They wanted to explore together in conversation the questions and challenges they faced thirty years after these landmark books. They also wanted to share opportunities they experienced of doing Christian scholarly work. Each participant read the two works. In addition, there were eleven short “legacy scholar” presentations by senior scholars including Marsden and Noll. Their presentations comprise part one of this book.
The second part of the book reflects small group discussions of questions and responses to the presentations. These were subsequently written up in and grouped in the five sections comprising part two of the book. The essays are short and reflect an ongoing conversation rather than finished research presentations. Given that the book consists of 63 chapters, I will touch on the high points of these essays.
Part I: Legacy Scholar Presentations
Mark Noll’s presentation opens the collection. He observes progress in examples of Christian voices and scholarly societies across the disciplines. But he notes the economic and ideological challenges as well as the disconnect between academia and the church. Marsden’s essay is more of a reflection on Christian scholarship. He highlights the importance of humility, discusses the challenges of polarization and hiring but affirms the high calling of academic work.
Several other Legacy Scholars from communication then respond with their ideas about Christian scholarship. Quentin Schultze outlines five root assumptions for communications scholarship. Calvin Troup offers a framework for biblical integration in communication. And Clifford Christians addresses the idea of substantive truth in intellectually plural settings.
Fr. Paul A. Soukup, SJ’s presentation stood out in offering a Catholic approach to teaching and research, particularly from a Jesuit perspective. He emphasized its values-based character, its purpose-driven nature, and the use of Ratio Studiorum, a sixteenth-century document. This prioritizes engaged learning, educating the whole person, education rooted in community including service-based learning, and a commitment to justice. I was struck that a number of essays engaged Fr. Soukup’s presentation.
Part II: Responses to our Legacy Scholars
Section One: Foundations and Historical Roots
The responses here ranged from Alexandria to Athens to Jerusalem. Mark A.E. Williams explored the cultural redefinitions of intellect that had a shaping influence on the beginnings of evangelicalism. John R. Terrill offered a fascinating essay on the history of the Chataqua Institution and how it might offer models for recovering trust between academia and the church. Lance Croy concludes the section with a history of Tolstoy’s school for peasant children, observing the parallels with Jesuit education outlined by Fr. Soukup.
Section Two: Reimagining the University and Christian Higher Education
A. Chase Mitchell responds particularly to George Marsden, noting the very different landscape of an ideologically fractured and tribal university, and the need for Christians to demonstrate unity with honest disagreement. David Dockery warns of the twin dangers of being driven by technology in the sciences and enacting tyranny in the humanities. He calls Christians to a virtuous middle focused on knowledge for God’s glory. In concluding this section, Elaine Fung and Brandon Knight write of the importance of community in the scholarly journey. For example, they point to Kristos Logos Paideia, an undergraduate communication society.
Section Three: Communication, Pedagogy, and Intellectual Formation
One of the highlights in this section was Kim Okesson’s profile of Dorothy Sayers. Specifically she highlights Sayers’ use of communications skills in arenas as diverse as scholarship, fiction, drama and essays. Janie Marie Harden Fritz highlights the theme of excellence in praxis that runs through a number of the Legacy Scholar presentations. She also reflects on her own scholarly formation a a Christian. Several essays engage specific theories or approaches including standpoint theory, dialogue, and the use of metaphor and image in Nick Wolterdorff’s Art in Action.
Section Four: Personal and Vocational Reflections
Geraldine E. Forsberg opens this section with a deeply thoughtful reflection on “The Christian Professor in the Twenty-first Century.” She emphasizes a Christ-controlled mind steeped in the wisdom of scripture affirming truth with love. Not only that, she believes Christian can offer a compelling vision for students and the university more widely at a time where vision has perished. Douglas Kelley offers the image of the long walk to Emmaus as a model for the space of dialogue between students and teachers. Adam Sonstroem recounts his own experience in one of Mark Noll’s classes and how his emphasis on excellent, careful thought challenged him.
Section Five: The Church, Public Witness, and Evangelical Identity
R. Tyler Spradley summarizes his research on the “managerial turn” in evangelical churches and how this has contributed to the scandal of the evangelical mind. This essay ought to be required reading in pastoral education! Then Mark Allan Steiner explores how scholarship with epistemological humility might serve the church’s efforts to develop discerning disciples. Building on this, Brian D. Mattson explores how the habits of curiosity, collegiality, and concentration might serve the church. Other essays explore the role of magazines, technology, and media may serve the church. Then in one of the concluding essays, Stephen D. Perry explores what it might mean for scholars to be scandalous and outrageous.
In Conclusion
I’ve only offered a sampling of what one will find in this book. A few concluding thoughts. Firstly, models of such mutual engagement are rare and this one was delightful. I had the sense that these scholars had a lot of fun at this “unconference.” Secondly, what impressed me was listening to these scholars talk about their lives–what formed them, what energized them, and the research they are engaged in and its relevance to the theme. Thirdly, I thought this a model for other disciplinary groups. While the focus was on communications, reading the essays suggests parallels for many other disciplines. Finally, I appreciated the focus on scholarship in service of the church as well as the academy. The divide is often great, as Noll observes and both the academy and the church stand to gain from one another’s gifts.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
One of my challenges in picking a Best Book of the Month is the “also rans.” Here were a few of the “also rans” from this month. Serving God Under Siege is a moving account of the war in Ukraine and the efforts of a seminary to keep training people to serve the church. Another war-focused novel is The Prodigal of Leningrad. It is good historical fiction of the siege of Leningrad, with a powerful narrative connected to Rembrandt’s Prodigal. Esther Lightcap Meek’s Loving to Know, on epistemology was one of my “best books of 2025.” Her recent The Mother’s Smile discusses how our very first experience, that of our mother’s smile, may be the most philosophically significant of our lives. Then, In Guns We Trust explores the Religious Right’s support of gun rights. The author listens to gun owners, churches, and gun manufacturers as he explores this issue.
Paul Elie’s The Last Supper explores the religious element in some of the most controversial art and artists of the 1980’s. But can art inform our understanding? That’s the question the researchers in Art Seeking Understanding explore. I’ve loved all of Steve Garber’s books. His latest, Hints of Hope is no exception, using eloquent prose to explore what it means to live with the proximate. Another writer I’ve liked is Louis Markos. From Aristotle to Christ is a great introduction to Aristotle that led me to pick up a copy of Aristotle’s works. Finally, you all know my love of baseball books. The Cup of Coffee Club tells the stories of eleven players who played just one game in the major leagues.
Of course, I review a number of other books here as well, including my third Jane Austen read and Thomas Pynchon’s latest novel.
The Reviews
A City on Mars, Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith. Penguin Books (ISBN: 9781984881748) 2023. A study of the complexities of human settlements in space, and whether this is as good an idea as some think. Review
Hints of Hope, Steven Garber, foreword by Makoto Fujimura. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9798893480344) 2026. How we might live with hope in a beautiful but broken world where even our best efforts realize only proximately our ideals. Review
The Unwinding Path, Betany Coons, text and illustrations. IVP Kids (ISBN: 9781514013151) 2026. A bedtime book inviting children into quiet and rest as they follow the calming path of the labyrinth. Review
From Aristotle to Christ, Louis Markos. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514011324) 2025. Considers and appraises Aristotle’s influence on Christianity and how Christian thinkers appropriated his thought. Review
Emma, Jane Austen. Penguin Classics (ISBN: 9780141439587) 2003 (first published in 1815). A beautiful, rich young women with no interest in marriage makes a series of disastrous assumptions in matchmaking for her friend. Review
Silence and Speaking Freely, Sabino Chialà, Translated by John McAreavey. Liturgical Press (ISBN: 9798400803048) 2026. A translation of two talks by a monastic prior on what it means to live in an integrity of silence and speech. Review
The Prodigal of Leningrad, Daniel Taylor. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9798893480221) 2026. During the siege of Leningrad, a docent who had betrayed his grandfather finds himself in Rembrandt’s Prodigal. Review
Between Interpretation and Imagination, Leslie Baynes. Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802874009) 2025. C.S. Lewis as Bible interpreter, vis a vis biblical criticism, the trilemma argument, and Narnia. Review
The Cup of Coffee Club, Jacob Kornhauser. Rowman & Littlefield (ISBN: 9781538175453) 2023. The stories of eleven baseball players who played just one game in the Major Leagues. Review
Why I Am Protestant (Ecumenical Dialogue Series), Beth Felker Jones. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514003008) 2025. A Protestant theologian addresses the strengths, weaknesses, and contributions of Protestantism. Review
Art Seeking Understanding, Christopher R. Brewer, editor. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802885166) 2025. A compendium of 23 research project essays studying aesthetic cognitivism funded by the Templeton Religion Trust. Review
Shadow Ticket, Thomas Pynchon. Penguin Press (ISBN: 9781594206108) 2025. Private detective Hop McTaggart hunts down a missing cheese heiress, from Milwaukee to Europe, in a series of madcap capers. Review
Wyrd Sisters (Discworld, 6) Terry Pratchett. Harper Paperbacks (ISBN: 9780063385559) 2024 (first published in 1988). Three witches living in Lancre hide the king’s heir when the king’s assassinated by Duke Felmet, and work to set things right. Review
In Guns We Trust. William J. Kole. Broadleaf Books (ISBN: 9798889835639) 2025. Why white evangelicals are among the most resistant to even reasonable restrictions on firearms and its impact. Review
The Mother’s Smile, Esther Lightcap Meek, foreword by D.C. Schindler. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9798385236473) 2025. How philosophically formative is a mother’s smile and the delighted regard of others. Review
It’s A Battlefield, Graham Greene. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781504053976) 2018, first published 1934. The private “battles” of those connected with Jim Drover, a bus driver convicted of murder for killing a policeman. Review
Man Up, Cynthia Miller-Idriss. Princeton University Press (ISBN: 9780691257549) 2025. The relationship of misogyny to various forms of violent extremism, the strategies men use to control women, and what can be done. Review
Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul, David W. Gill and Lisa Richmond, eds. Pickwick Publications (ISBN: 9798385244430) 2025. Essays on the technological thought of Ellul, both foundational principles and applications. Review
Serving God Under Siege, Valentyn Syniy. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802885692) 2025. A memoir of fleeing Kherson when Russia invaded, the challenges and lessons of displacement, and returning home. Review
Best Book of the Month
Jacques Ellul, I believe, might be called the prescient prophet of technology. In 1954, he anticipated the world of 2026. So, when 31 scholars ponder his work and its meaning and application to our time, it is noteworthy. Questioning Technology, in my opinion is some of the most thoughtful writing on technology from a Christian perspective. I would recommend reading it hand in hand with Pope Leo XIV’s Humanitas Magnifica.
Quote of the Month
In Esther Lightcap Meek’s The Mother’s Smile included this passage describing the “delighted regard” of an academic colleague and mentor:
“But I want to tell you about Bob’s face! I don’t mean any particular expression, but rather the frank, unqualified regard and particular delight that it always registered as he looked at me. I saw him seeing me. Over the years I grew to see myself as Bob sees me; I chose this visage, holding to his seeing me as more objective than my own subjective view. As a person, and also professionally, I have come to be who I am in his unwavering regard” (p. 76).
What I’m Reading
What Grows in Weary Lands is Tish Harrison Warren’s latest work on spiritual formation. Specifically, she explores the wisdom of the Desert Fathers to address how we live in faith through seasons of weariness. So substantive! Also, Nicaea Today explores the relevance of a creed from 1700 years ago to the church today. Then, going deeper in one of the declarations of Nicaea, Robert Lethan’s The Eternal Son explores the eternal generation of the Son, his deity and relation to God the Father. But not all our resources for faith come from the earliest centuries. For example, Love in a Time of Climate Change, draws on the Wesleyan quadrilateral of scripture, tradition, reason, and experience to address the church’s response to climate change.
Finally, in the area of psychology, Daniel Smith in Hard Feelings explores how the “negative” emotions are not to be suppressed but heeded for what they are trying to tell us. Lastly, I’m finally taking the plunge into the fiction of fellow Ohioan Louis Bromfield, reading Early Autumn, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1927. I’ve long admired his pioneering efforts in sustainable agriculture at Malabar Farm, which I’ve visited and even camped at with a group of Boy Scouts.
The Month in Reviews is my monthly review summary going back to 2014!It’s a great way to browse what I’ve reviewed. The search box on this blog also works well if you are looking for a review of a particular book. So, thanks for stopping byand feel free to share this with others!
As a reader, I am at war with a not-so-silent intruder. My phone. Spam calls. Texts trying to sell me or scam me. Social media feeds that either fascinate or anger me. And it often takes me away from reading.
I am not one who necessarily pines to read more. Rather, I wouldn’t mind reading what I try to read each day in less time. And the biggest time waster often is my phone.
The only answer I’ve found is physical separation. I put the phone somewhere else. Then I do focused phone time. Part of my challenge is being what some call “a book influencer.” The main way to do this is online–and most of my posting and interactions are on the phone. But one practice is to take a day away from this every week.
I find myself wondering if I’m contributing to the very problem I battle. I hope not. I try to create spaces pointing people to the goodness, truth, and beauty in books with the hope that this will feed people’s reading habits. Hopefully, I provide a redemptive alternative to so much of the ugliness and distortion of truth one finds online.
But I don’t want people to live here. Too much time on screens arguably affects our ability to think. Longform reading, such as we encounter in books literally cultivates our brains. And as a senior, I need all the brain cells I can get! So, as delighted as I am that you are reading this, may I also encourage you to “log off and read a book!”
Five Articles Worth Reading
Doonesbury was one of the comics we read back in the day of newspapers for its humorous take of the politics of the day during the Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan years. Although Garry Trudeau, its creator keeps a low profile, the strip is still going as a weekly. This year, a new biography of Trudeau is being published by Joshua Kendall, a journalist. Pamela Newton sat down for a conversation with the two of them captured in “Authorized? Unauthorized? Garry Trudeau Calls a New Biography ‘Unopposed’“
What books had you read by the time you were twenty-two, when many of us graduated from college? Anna Holmes advises students to “Read These Books by the Time You Graduate.” But why these books? She chose books for those trying to find their way in life, not for advice given, but for qualities one might emulate. I’ve read (and had read by 22) two on the list, and three hadn’t been written when I passed that threshold.
This past week, Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical, Humanitas Magnifica. Ed Simon takes the occasion to explore the impact of encyclicals in “How Many Divisions Has the Pope?“–a remark first made by Joseph Stalin.
Although there has already been extensive commentary on the encyclical, I wonder how many have read it. “Encyclical Letter Humanitas Magnifica” is available at the Vatican website and extends the social teaching of the church reaching back to Leo XIII Rerum Novarum, as it discusses the brave new world of AI.
Many of us were readers from childhood, and like C.S. Lewis grew up in homes full of books, or at least homes that encouraged reading. Bethel McGrew talks about growing up in “The House of Ten Thousand Books.”
Quote of the Week
G. K. Chesterton, who was born on May 29, 1874 had a different take on a slogan that is still popular:
‘My country, right or wrong’ is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying ‘My mother, drunk or sober.’
Miscellaneous Musings
I found what looks to be a most interesting trip on a recent bookstore outing: The Wounded Generation by David Nasaw. It talks about those who returned from World War II. My father fought in that war and was proud of his service, as are we. But he only talked about a few incidents that occurred during his deployment in Europe. This was before PTSD was recognized. I wonder how he was changed by his experiences, and look forward to reading this.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters was a powerful song that addressed all the forms of weariness we struggled with in the early 1970’s Vietnam era. What Grows in Weary Lands is like that, but of greater substance. Tish Harrison Warren writes about the weariness that often happens around mid-life and what the life of faith looks like in such times, and other wearying times.
This week, I reviewedQuestioning Technology with Jacques Ellul, a collection of 31 essays on the thought of Ellul. As impressed with the Pope’s encyclical as I am, I would say this work is more far-reaching in scope. And Ellul was a prescient thinker I wish more were aware of.
Next Week’s Reviews
Monday: The Month in Reviews: May 2026
Tuesday: Robert H. Woods and Mark Allen Steiner, From the Outrageous to the Scandalous: Re-imagining Christian Thinking and Scholarship in an Age of Tribalism and Ideological Resentment
Wednesday: Robert Coover, The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.
Thursday: Coleman M. Ford and Shawn Wilhite, Nicaea for Today
Friday: Agatha Christi, Mrs. McGinty’s Dead
So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for May 24-30.
Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.
